


down the road we go

by palladium



Category: Macdonald Hall - Gordon Korman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:55:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palladium/pseuds/palladium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>bruno first kisses boots the day before his fourteenth birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	down the road we go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [strippedhalo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strippedhalo/gifts).



> a little treat for strippedhalo, i really hope this suits what you were looking for! and i apologize that it's all in lowercase. (hope it doesn't bother you too much!)

the day before bruno's fourteenth birthday, bruno had burst into room 306 where boots was sprawled on the bed, flipping through his history textbook, a second away from falling asleep.

bruno had jumped on the bed, then, shouting something along the lines of, "boots! you've got to kiss me! the guys said if i don't kiss somebody before midnight, i'm going to be proclaimed as a loser like george wexford-smythe iii!"

and boots rolled over, staring up at bruno with half-lidded eyes, not quite fully conscious. "alright."

bruno, who hovered over boots', stilled all of a sudden. " - really? you'd- you're alright?"

boots shrugged, and then rolled back over, knocking his textbook on the ground in the process. "either you do it now or i'm going to sleep."

so bruno gaped a little, hesitating, and then rolled boots back towards him, leaned down and kissed him.

it had been soft and quick; boots humming into it, and bruno pulled back.

he had waited until boots had fallen completely asleep before sneaking back out of the room.

+

boots had not remembered it, so bruno had never mentioned it again. but when they're sixteen, they went to cathy and diane's place to have a night in, and those evil, evil, wicked girls made them play truth or dare and they had to kiss one another.

boots swallowed. "come on," he said, glancing back and forth between cathy and diane. "you don't really mean that -? i didn't even want to play this in the first place - "

but diane had none of it. she said, "you can't back out of this now, boots. you've got to do it," the same time cathy snickered at bruno, "how does it feel being turned down by your best friend, walton?"

so before boots could have said anything else, bruno had grabbed him by the shoulder and kissed him like it wasn't the first time they kissed. which, weird, thought boots, but it didn't matter because somehow, something about the way bruno slowly pressed his lips against his, a little chapped from the cold, felt right.

when they pulled back, boots hadn't realized the girls had been whistling. he blushed, and bruno turned away.

+

when it was a few hours before boots turned seventeen, him and bruno were running around down the highway (how they sneaked out boots still doesn't know, but bruno had his ways), going nowhere, but not far.

"finally," bruno had been shouting, his voice significantly rougher and deeper, boots had noted, since he turned seventeen. "you're going to be seventeen. it's going to be great, boots, we're finally going to be only two years before we're completely legal!"

and then bruno had grabbed boots' hand, his fingers warm and his palm calloused, tugging boots down the almost empty road.

they had stopped running at one point, and boots had thought that they couldn't be at least five minutes away from the hall. bruno hadn't let go of boots' hand.

they probably stared at the moon and the stars for quite a while before bruno finally said, somehow too quiet yet too loud all the same, into the night. he directed it to boots. "this is just the beginning, isn't it?"

boots turned to him then, and realized that bruno had already been staring at him. his eyes were soft; a pale, warm mocha colour that twisted something inside boots' chest. "yeah," he'd replied, with just the same private voice, and squeezed bruno's hands tighter.

when bruno kissed him that night, the whole highway was silent, and the stars gleamed. boots didn't know how it led up to that, only knew that it did, and that he was glad.

+

at eighteen, bruno came back into their room while boots was seated at the desk, typing away at his history essay about how the failures of the league of nations had contributed to the lead up to world war ii.

boots hadn't looked up, but he had said, "hey," and bruno hadn't answered.

then, bruno had swerved boot's chair around, and before boots could make a sound, bruno leaned down and pressed and pressed, his tongue tracing boots' bottom lip and then delving inside, one of his hand found its way behind boots neck, keeping him still, and the other on the arm of the chair. 

when he pulled, boots had wondered aloud, "what did pete say this time?"

it was a long silence before bruno had said, his voice so terribly small. "he said i'd lose you someday because i can't have you beside me forever."

their foreheads touched, and then boots laughed, all of sudden, but it was quiet and with no humour. "i didn't take you to be the gullible one, walton." he shook his head a little, then tilted his head and kissed bruno for a long time.

he hadn't handed in his essay on time.

+

the day before graduation, bruno and boots both stared up at their room's ceiling, trying to ignore the emptiness of their surroundings; their suitcases packed and ready to go the next day on one side of the room, the desk cleared up and the closet door was _closed_ for once. it was a feeling that neither of them could shake off, except that they would still have each other, possibly, hopefully.

"of course we will," bruno had scoffed, and only then boots had realized he'd wondered aloud again. in the dark, boots glanced over and watched bruno's figure shift to face him. "hey, do you want to - " and before he could finish, boots sat up and walked over to bruno's bed.

"i'm- " boots started, his voice hitched. bruno grabbed his wrist and pulled him down beside him and boots curled into the warmth of bruno's body. "i'm going to miss this place, bruno,  _so much_."

bruno kisses his head, softly, like a unspoken promise, and boots closed his eyes tightly. "i'm going to, too."

+

on the day of the graduation, when they were taking photos before the ceremony, bruno dragged boots behind a building and pulled him into a hug.

boots laughed lightly. "we're going to the same college, you know."

"oh, i know," bruno had rolled his eyes, pulling back to push boots into the wall, his hands on boots' hips holding him still.

"what are you doing, bruno?" boots hissed, watching as bruno dipped down just before their lips met, boots' hand on his chest, stopping him. "people are going to wonder where we are! and do you really want to get into trouble with the fish on the day of our graduation?"

"don't care," bruno breathed, warm and hot, and surged boots into a kiss. as boots' legs started to shake, bruno's hands tightened their hold of his hips, and boots only remembered the taste of toothpaste and peppermint candy.

*

"we should get married."

boots glances up from where he's making pancakes, and bruno stares at him, completely serious, leaning against the counter and drinking his coffee.

boots turns back, "i'm pretty sure it isn't legal." he hears bruno scoff right into his coffee, and then there's choking for a few seconds after while boots rolls his eyes at the pancakes.

bruno rinses his cup and walks behind boots, his hands fitting over his hips. "that doesn't matter."

boots flips the pancake with his spatula. "what now, walton," he laughs, "are you proposing to me?"

"and if i am?"

"i'd say yes," boots says without a beat.

"right," bruno hums and kisses boots' neck, "and then i'd tell you how deep in love i am with you."

+

during their ten year renuion with the hall, boots watches bruno run down the hallways of dormitory three like he just came home. which, technically, they did.

they find room 306, and boots stares at the number on the door with an intense fondness that twists his stomach. as bruno is unlocking the door, boots grabs him by the shoulder and kisses him and kisses him.

bruno's hand somehow finds boots' spine and he traces it as boots pulls away.

"come on," bruno says then, smiling, his eyes bright. he pushes boots lightly towards the door. "we're home."

(bruno collapses on his old bed when they get inside and boots, instead of climbing into his old bed, he gets into bruno's, straddling him, hovering over him with a smile.

"didn't expect you to be the kinky type, melvin," bruno smirks, and when he sits up, he traps boots between his knees and his chest. "but it'll do." he's grinning when he licks into boots' mouth.)

+

during dinner at the old dining hall, bruno shakes hands and hugs everyone and boots just hugs everyone. a lot of them pull him aside and say, "hey, congratulations, alright? it's about time you and bruno got your act together," and boots flushes.

bruno actually tears up when the fish comes in and makes his speech, and also when he invites bruno to make a toast.

("i would not be here today if it weren't for all of you; if it weren't for the hall and your commitment to it. so, thank you, and i'm glad to be home. long live macdonald hall!"

if boots weren't busy trying not to look like an idiot and cry like a baby, he would realize that everyone else around the tables were sniffling as well.  _grown men_ , he thought,  _crying before their leader_. he thinks, and he smiles. bruno looks at him right at that second, and boots just nods, slightly, like a promise.)

when they get into the car, hours later when the renuion ends, bruno climbs into the car and doesn't do anything for a while. boots stares out the windshield, watches the moon and the stars on the right, close to the highway. he remembers something important; that night, hours before he turned seventeen, and he feels himself breathe in suddenly, like a surge in his chest, just as bruno finds his hand and clasps it tightly.

"pete said something to me," he says, quietly, and boots doesn't reply, but bruno continues. "he said that i proved him wrong, when he said i couldn't keep you forever." boots squeezes his hand absently, turning to look at him now, and bruno's breath hitches when he says, "and now look; ten years later, you're still mine."

(boots feels his chest burst at that, and when bruno looks away and shrugs, saying, "i guess i've still got my old charm," boots shakes his head and replies, softly, "i don't know why i'm in love with an idiot.")

this time, when they kiss, it feels like they've confirmed a promise that can't be broken; a promise they had made long before they were even aware of it: that they'd stay together.

"i was always," boots finally whispers. he brings bruno's hands to his lips, and adds, "i couldn't ever be anything else."

+

they bump into diane and cathy one evening in march and they hang out at diane's place like the old times. bruno rolls his eyes (because he doesn't want to admit how much he missed them out loud, boots scoffed) at the first ten, twenty minutes of diane and cathy tearing up and saying over and over how  _we've missed you idiots so much!_

at one point, cathy quirks her brows and says, "so, _finally_ you guys figured it out." and diane nods so hard that it looks like it hurts, so boots has to tell her to stop. "i was wondering how long it'd take."

bruno considers saying "what are you talking about" with a blank face just so he can see her reaction, but he decides it's not worth it. instead, he shrugs, "actually, it took a kiss before my fourteenth birthday."

cathy gasps _no way_ while diane gushes. boots hides his face in his hands (he still does that ever since bruno first told him - " _god_ , am i really like that when i'm sleepy?")

they talk for long hours and right before bruno decides they should probably be heading back, cathy says, "halt! no leaving until we get to see you two make out! me and diane have literally waited twelve years for you two to get together."

boots tries to sputter out "what - " before bruno just shrugs and backs him up against the nearest wall and tilts boots' chin up. "pretend they aren't there," he whispers, low, so boots closes his eyes and bruno kisses him.

it's only about ten seconds in when diane and cathy's squeals turn into white noise.

+

on the day bruno turns twenty nine, he wakes up to a armful of boots and his chest does its morning routine of happy skips at the sight. something on boots' right hand, resting against bruno's chest, gleams in the sun light and he remembers with a smile,  _oh, right, i proposed_. he grabs boots' hand and presses it closer to his heart.

when he leans in, he briefly experiences déjà vu of when he first kissed (a sleepy) boots before his fourteenth birthday. bruno closes the distance and kisses him here, now, and then he takes his time to momentarily congratulate himself in his head and to pat his thirteen-almost-fourteen self on the back:  _you did the right thing, bruno walton._


End file.
